


Level Up

by NervousOtaku (orphan_account)



Series: Tales of a 144 Player Fansession! [30]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Echeladder Climbing, Grist Farming, SBURB Fan Session, playing around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 19:52:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10472904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/NervousOtaku
Summary: Or: SBURB Is Still A Game, So I'm Going To Take Some Time To Farm EXP And Enjoy Myself





	

She had time to do this.

Thanks to the Time-players, of course.

Life was very stressful in the Incipisphere. One could very easily forget that it was a game, lethal or not.

Aisling double-checked that she had all of her forks in her Strife Deck and a supply of anything she might need on this little run. Content that she did, she pulled her hair back into a messy bun and changed into clothes better suited to so much outdoors work.

Not that she was going to work. Even if the newts called whatever she did heroic work, Aisling McCrae was _not_ working today.

No, today was going to be a me-day for the Mage of Hope.

She wasn't as big on gaming as, say, the Bard of Life. But she'd played a few, and she knew that sometimes you just had to go out and farm a bit. Otherwise you didn't get stronger, didn't get items, didn't level up.

So today, Aisling was going to explore LOLAA, the Land of Lotuses and Adobe, and do a little underling-ass-kicking while she was at it.

LOLAA was a very beautiful planet. A few of the others said that it looked like it should have been a Space-player planet. In a way, Aisling supposed that it did. With all the water, the thriving greenery, the lotus plants growing absolutely everywhere, and all the statuary. Her quest here on her planet was to teach the newt-consorts a new way to mix adobe, since Ebisu's arrival had destroyed the quarry from where they got the mud they used.

In comparison to a lot of other consorts, Aisling liked to think that her newts were a _tiny_ bit smarter. If not, then at _least_ they were very good sculptors and house-builders. And that was something, she felt.

Aisling started by going in the direction opposite to the one she usually went in when she left the house— that is, she went out the back door and started walking along the path there rather than the one at the front of the house. She'd only explored a portion of her planet up until now, and was fairly certain that was the same for most of the others. They were _planets_ , after all.

For a while, it seemed like it would be nearly identical to going the other way.

But then Aisling came to the lake.

It was more of an enormous pond, really, considering how shallow it was, but it looked like a lake. A bridge arched over the water, and there were hundreds of lotus-plants growing in the water, completely masking the surface in some areas.

There were underlings on the bridge.

“You should wait for my brother,” she quoted with a grin as she approached, “He's much bigger and tastier than me!”

None of them got the reference, a few imps darting forward for the first blood.

“Philistines.”

Aisling pulled out her Devil's Tuning Fork, the perpetual ringing of the optical-illusion-based weapon filling the air. To this day, she part regretted and part celebrated the idea of alcemizing a tuning fork with an M. C. Escher book. It was a powerful weapon, put it was painful to use for extended periods of time. You got quite the headache trying to figure out the two prongs... three prongs... two... and the decoration on the handle, how did it work...? Could something 3D really twist like that...?

Aisling ran forward to meet the imps, but rather than attack them, she used one of them as a launch-pad to spring into the air. Turning a few momentum-powered somersaults, she then gripped the nonsensical weapon in both hands and brought it down, eliminating two ogres and a basilisk. This left a gigiclopse, a basilisk, and a small horde of imps. But using the Devil's Tuning Fork for any longer would start to hurt her as well. She needed to be higher up the echeladder in order to use it effectively.

Changing the chaotic weapon out before she could start hallucinating or bleeding, Aisling produced the Lolita Prongs. It had become her default weapon, lately. Not that she was objecting, she liked it very much, but felt that she needed to be able to properly wield all of her forks.

A few quick jabs finished off the second basilisk, but then she had to hurry to move out of the way so that the gigiclopse didn't crush her. The tuck-and-roll brought her right into the middle of the imps, who all began to rush her. A wide, sweeping swing backed them all off, but now she had to move again.

Jabbing the fork into the bridge's stonework, the Mage flung herself into the air. The underlings looked up in surprise, stunned that she'd left the Lolita Prongs standing upright in the middle of them while she was vaulted up high.

Aisling couldn't help but grin as she produced Lightning's Silver. Having reached the peak of her ascent, she pulled herself into a tight spin as she fell. Electricity crackled around her like a swarm of deranged, angry crows. Landing perfectly in the middle of the imps electrocuted them all, but the gigiclopse had escaped the lightning-riddled attack.

That was fine.

Lightning's Silver was captchalogued, and the Lolita Prongs was yanked from the ground. A well-placed toss skewered the beast's head, finishing it off.

Aisling smiled, retrieving her weapon as she watched the boondollars come in. She received enough to convert another million into a boonbuck, and scaled another two rungs on her echeladder— one for combat prowess and another for pulling off those sweet moves. She still had a long way to go before she reached the top, though. A quick glance said at least half of the thing, and that was a lot of rungs.

How many did the god-tiers have?

Pushing the thought from her head, Aisling collected the grist and continued on her way. She wanted to explore a bit more—

 _Hm_.

Pausing, she looked over the edge of the bridge at the lotuses and their lily-pads. Her gaze traced a path across them to the far side of the lake-pond. The water was only waist-deep at best, but she wanted to try this. Plus there could be all sorts of interesting things over there!

Taking a deep breath, Aisling climbed up onto the wall of the bridge. Taking another breath to steel herself, she jumped off, aiming for one cluster of flowers in particular.

Her foot touched the lily-pads. The broad leaves began to bend and bow under her, water sloshing up over them.

“ _Hup!_ ”

It took some effort and felt sloppy, but Aisling successfully pushed off of the pads and sprang into the air. The flowers and their leaves bobbed wildly in the ripples she left behind as she touched down on another cluster of pads.

As she made her way across the lake-pond, Aisling could feel her grin growing wider, her movements smoother, and the ripples smaller.

When she made it to the shore, she let out a breath of giddy laughter.

She'd just used _lily-pads_ to cross _water_.

She was a motherfucking _ninja_.

Throwing her hands up to the sky, the Mage crowed, “I'm never taking a bridge _again!_ ”


End file.
